Load Cells Cope with Tough Environments

Coping with the environment in harsh applications can reduce the life or increase the cost of many products, especially when one of the underlying technologies restricts the operation. By extending the environmental capabilities of its LSM250 and LSM300 Precision Load Cells, FUTEK Advanced Sensor Technology Inc. opened the load cells to new applications. The newest units operate under high temperature (steel version only) and low temperatures, are water resistant and tolerate to high humidity. With an operating temperature range of -60 to 200F (-50 to 93C), the one–piece parallelogram or belt buckle design load cell operates in both tension and compression.

Offered in 2024 aluminum with 0.25 to 1 lb (1.1 to 4.5N) capacity ratings, the LSM250 Precision Load Cell has dimensions of 1.49 x 0.38 x 0.93 inch (37.8 x 9.5 x 23.6 mm). Offered in 2024 aluminum (2.2 to 100 lb) (9.8 to 445N) or 17-4PH stainless steel (200 to 500 lb) (890 to 2224N), the LSM300 load cell has dimensions of 1.80 x 0.50 x 1.40-inch (45.7 x 12.7 x 34.8 mm). Both units have a 6-inch, 29 AWG, 4-color coded Teflon lead wire. With a nominal output of 2 mV/V and built-in overload protection, the safe overload of products in the 0.25 to 1 lb range is 50 lb, for the 2.2 to 100 lb range it is 250 lb and in the 200 to 500 lb range it is 200 percent of rated output.

The bonded foil strain gage-based units weigh from 1 to 3 oz, have a 1,000-O high resistance bridge and operate on voltages up to 18V ac or dc. The high accuracy (0.02 percent LSM250 and 0.05 percent LSM300) units have nonlinearity, hysteresis and nonrepeatability that is ±0.05 percent of the rated output.

In addition to simple mounting installation, FUTEK’s LSM300 load cell (and the LSM250) have built in overload protection to handle up to 10 times the normal capacity and withstand levels that could occur during installation.

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